


The Return of Deleted Scenes (From Marauders 11)

by NotQuiteHydePark



Category: New Mutants (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, Metafiction, Multi, My heart my heart, Polyamory Negotiations, Resurrection, Subways, Wakes & Funerals, Washington D.C.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26215444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHydePark/pseuds/NotQuiteHydePark
Summary: “You think you’ve been waiting a long time for Kate to come out,” Kurt says. “Some people have been waiting even longer.”
Relationships: Emma Frost & Kitty Pryde, Kitty Pryde & Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde/Illyana Rasputin, Kitty Pryde/Rachel Summers, Lockheed & Kitty Pryde
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	The Return of Deleted Scenes (From Marauders 11)

Dear Kätzchen: We spoke at great length about how and whether to bury you. Magneto said only “There will be no cemeteries on Krakoa” and refused to say more about rites. As he is the only Jewish mutant in a position of authority here, and in any case he was never observant, we chose the rites that fit a pirate queen. 

Your funeral was the most profound ritual I have seen since I myself last came back from the dead. It also said a lot about your life. Storm would barely meet the White Queen’s gaze, so much did Ororo care for you, so much did she blame herself—as well as Emma—for your loss. We never truly treated you as an adult until now, and now, having done so, we lost you. Were we wrong to make you the Red Queen? Or wrong before?

Chuck delivered a eulogy in which, as usual, he tried just a bit too hard. He called himself a jerk and concluded “To life!” I wish you had never shown him Fiddler on the Roof. It’s weird when people know just a bit about Judaism, isn’t it? Or just a bit about mutants. But I digress.

Rachel and Illyana, the two great loves of your life who never betrayed or deceived you, walked behind your coffin as if they were both your spouse. Perhaps both are. Illyana, your first true and lasting flame, cast the magical spark that Pyro used to send your floating coffin where no living mutant can go.

Rachel and Illyana, too grief-stricken to speak to each other, united in their hard stares as Emma walked by. I think Emma let her grief show, but only in private. I think she blames herself as well.

*

The clean hexagons and high concrete vaults of a Washington, DC Metro station appear in forced perspective as a curiously out-of-place, squarish and shiny subway train arrives. “Rosslyn,” a crackling speaker announces. “Change here for the Orange Line. Last stop in Virginia.” A tall woman in a wide-brimmed hat, along with two blond girls in black-and-white smocks, boards the train.

“Thank you,” the tall woman says, “for keeping my claustrophobia under control. I have rarely valued your talents more highly than I do today.” She pauses, revealing her long fingers, and stands up inside the train before she sits down: her bearing is confident, even regal. “Something about this train is out of place. It does not belong.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” says a pink-haired kid with round spectacles. He looks not quite out of his teens. “Haven’t you been on the DC Metro before? This isn’t it.”

“What is the meaning of this, Quentin?” asks Ororo (for it is she).

“We’ve switched your regular Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, aka Metro, trains for Folgers Crystals!” announces Quentin Quire, jauntily. 

“Why?” Storm says.

“To see if anyone noticed.”

“We noticed,” say both the Cuckoos in unison. “And the only reason the other passengers on today’s evening commute didn’t notice that they’re in a New York City subway car, despite riding the DC Metro, is that we were mind controlling them. Put the trains back where they belong, please, Quentin.”

“Not till I’ve finished my rendezvous,” Ororo says. “One ride in one subway car is quite enough for today; two would be a needless strain. You are, however, being a jerk.”

“I have good company. Isn’t Professor Xavier a jerk?” the pink-haired mutant, almost jeering, asks. “It’s just a little subway-car substitution. Think of it as my tribute to the classics of Italian art.”

Later, Ororo continues her conversation with her US government contact while the train moves slowly through its tunnel.

“Is Metro on fire?” asks Delores plaintively.

“Not any more,” says Ororo, conjuring up a miniature rain cloud and extinguishing the small blaze on the tracks. “A poor substitute for adequate transit funding, I realize, but we mutants do what we can.”

Delores nods. “Well played. And now you know it’s not just the Brazils and Russias of the world but also the current administration right here in the US that can be bought. Just like Madripoor. I as a dedicated civil servant feel lucky that I can still do my job without being told to violate the Hatch Act. I don't know how much longer I can last.”

Ororo nods. “As a citizen of Krakoa I can no longer vote in the United States. But you can. Please do. Even if 5% of the votes don’t get counted properly, the other 95% could be enough.” She pauses. "I, too, think often about hatch acts."

One stop later their conversation concludes. Delores has thanked Ororo for the Krakoan miracle drug that saved her mother’s life. “I am happy for your miracle,” Storm says. “Goddess knows, affordable lifesaving drugs shouldn’t have to look like a miracle. I did mention voting, right?”

Delores wheels away. “You did. This is all getting rather earnest. Also, why are we riding in a subway car from New York?”

*

Emma, now with Lockheed (it’s Lockheed’s first time at one of these events) attends the eighteenth attempt to resurrect Kate from an egg. “Her husk never breaks out,” Hope Summers says, exhausted and frustrated.

“You think you’ve been waiting a long time for Kate to come out, Hoffnung-mädchen,” Kurt says. “Some people have been waiting even longer.” Lockheed’s tongue of flame shows draconic agreement.

“Yes, of course,” Emma says. Her eyes turn pure white, a visual link to Storm’s when she uses her powers. She’s figured something out. 

“Her husk never stirs,” Emma thinks. “We’ve been waiting for her body to break into the world.” Stormcloud-shaped word balloons indicate telepathic communication from Frost to the rest of them. “We’ve been waiting for her body to break into the world. But the mutants who favor violent confrontation, and who stand for a permanent, irreconcilable conflict between trans and cis people, disabled and nondisabled people, one social class and another, mutants and baseline humans…. that’s not our Kate. Not at all. 

“Kate stands for the tactical use of passing privilege, and for working within the system, any system, when you can, as well as for yelling really loud and disrupting systems (electronic or social) when you can’t. She’s the ultimate human in the loop. But to do that she has to be in the loop.

“That’s why Kate doesn’t smash barriers…. she ignores them.” Emma’s gloved hand reaches out to Kate’s bare one as she emerges in the sight of two teachers and two of her oldest friends, one blue and furry, one lavender, with wings.

*

Two pages later Kate, almost entirely covered by a warm red blanket (she is the Red Queen, still) leans into Emma’s warm embrace. “The last thing I remember…. is you kissing me at the Red Keep,” Kate says.

“Yes, I do have that effect on people.”

“Does this mean we’re going to kiss again? Or start dating? Because frankly, when I’m fully awake—and I’m not—I think there will be ethical concerns. I used to be your student. At the time you were kind of evil and tried, by force, to prevent me from leaving. Also you once telepathically killed someone’s horse.”

Emma sighs. “You’re never going to leave that alone, sweet girl. And I would never let our relationship turn explicitly, clothes-off romantic without a conversation involving Illyana and Rachel, your current girlfriends, and another conversation with Scott. We can have that conversation tomorrow, if you like. It won’t be hard to set up, since two powerful telepaths would be involved.”

Kate shudders, then smiles, then looks out at the sea. “I’d like that. But not yet.”

“Why not?”

The dragon settles around Kate’s shoulders, nostrils wide, black eyes open. “Let’s first go kill Shaw.”

Emma smiles, her frosted lips closed. “Good girl.”


End file.
